Senior Director, Sales Development

Avalara, Inc.; Durham (NC); On-site; USD 246,000 - 491,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonuses

Equity award

Paid time off

Paid parental leave

Job summary

Avalara is seeking a Senior Director of Outbound Sales Development to lead a 40+ person global SDR organization from the Durham, NC office. This high-impact role partners with Marketing, Sales, and RevOps to build a data-driven pipeline and elevate SQL performance.

Reporting to the VP of Sales Development, you will drive strategic direction, coaching, and talent development, ensuring rigorous processes and effective use of Salesforce.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in B2B revenue or sales leadership, incl. 5+ years leading large, distributed SDR or inside sales organizations.
• 3+ years leading through people leaders in sales management for telephone-based sales, business development or SDR teams.
• Proven track record installing operational discipline and performance rigor in complex environments.
• Deep understanding of SDR productivity math, ramp modeling, and pipeline forecasting.
• Experience building or scaling outbound engines.
• High emotional intelligence with strong accountability.
• Comfort navigating ambiguity while bringing clarity and structure.

Responsibilities

• Execute demand generation plans to support growth goals.
• Contribute to evolution of business development and integrate AI into workflows.
• Develop talent aligned to evolving business needs.
• Lead North America Outbound teams and coordinate with Outbound India for global SOPs.
• Leverage data to derive trends and improve processes across teams.
• Motivate XDRs to exceed objectives through coaching and metrics.
• Oversee Salesforce and other CRM usage.
• Collaborate with leadership to refine processes and training.
• Maintain strong cross-functional relationships with Marketing and Sales.
• Compile daily and weekly QA reports.

Skills

Sales leadership

SDR management

Forecasting

Data-driven

Coaching

Strategic thinking

Education

Bachelor's degree in business management

Tools

Salesforce

Job description

What You'll Do

Avalara is entering its next phase of growth. As we evolve from a predominantly inbound-led motion to a more balanced inbound and outbound strategy, Sales Development sits at the center of pipeline creation and revenue acceleration.

We are seeking a Senior Director of Outbound Sales Development who can lead at scale installing operational rigor, strengthening leadership discipline, and building a predictable, data-driven pipeline engine that fuels our go-to-market organization.

This is a high-impact leadership role responsible for stabilizing and elevating a 40+ person global SDR organization while partnering closely with Marketing, Sales, and RevOps to drive measurable SQL performance.

Reporting to the VP of Sales Development, you will lead the North America Outbound Sales Development organization, providing strategic direction, leadership, coaching and mentoring. Using your leadership skills, you will inspire this group of frontline Sales Development Representatives and lead the way for the development of future talent in an exciting, innovative, and growing SaaS company!

Location:Durham, NC

This role requires a strong onsite presence at Avalara’s Durham office. Candidates must be based in the Durham area or willing to relocate.

What Your Responsibilities Will Be

• Execute on the demand generation plans to support the company's strategic growth goals
• Contribute to and support the evolution of the business development function incorporating AI technologies into the sales development workflows
• Understand the changing needs of the business and ensure the development of new talent is aligned to support these needs
• Lead the North America Outbound teams and have dotted line responsibility for the Outbound India teams to ensure global best practices and SOPs are followed and enforced, orchestrate alignment across this function with revenue and growth marketing
• Leverage data to derive trends, inform next practices and improve overall process and execution across teams
• Motivate teams and XDR’s to exceed objectives through coaching, weekly one on ones, daily metric tracking and creative incentives
• Help create a fun, high energy environment where people love coming to work
• Oversee and monitor the effective use of Salesforce and other CRM tools
• Work closely with executive and senior leadership teams to refine process, talk tracks and update training documentation
• Ensure positive and collaborative working relationships with both the marketing and sales organizations to maximize the sales representatives' impact
• Compile daily and weekly reports for quality assurance

What You'll Need to be Successful

• Bachelor's degree in business management or related field, or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years in B2B revenue or sales leadership, including 5+ years leading large, distributed SDR or inside sales organizations.
• A minimum of 3 years+ proven experience leading through people leaders in sales management for telephone-based sales, business development or SDR teams preferably in SaaS or technology sales.
• Proven skill set of identifying great talent and scaling a successful geographically dispersed business development organization.
• A strategic thinker with the ability to adapt and deliver consistent growth during times of business transformation.
• Proven track record installing operational discipline and performance rigor in complex environments.
• Deep understanding of SDR productivity math, ramp modeling, and pipeline forecasting.
• Experience building or scaling outbound engines.
• High emotional intelligence paired with high standards of accountability.
• Comfort navigating ambiguity while bringing clarity and structure.

Compensation

The compensation range for this role is as follows: $245,600 - $490,500 (OTE - 60/40 Pay Mix). The successful candidate's actual salary/wage may be based on various factors, such as geographic location, candidate experience and qualifications, as well as market and business considerations.

This role is eligible for the opportunity to earn sales incentives based on revenue or utilization, depending on the terms of the applicable plan and the employee's role. This role is also eligible for an equity award, subject to the terms of the applicable plan.

Avalara is an AI-first Company

AI is embedded in our workflows, decision-making, and products. Success here requires embracing AI as an essential capability.

• You'll bring experience using AI and AI-related technologies, ready to thrive here.
• You'll apply AI every day to business challenges - improving efficiency, contributing solutions, and driving results for your team, our company, and our customers.
• You'll grow with AI by staying curious about new trends and best practices, and by sharing what you learn so others can benefit too.

How We'll Take Care of You

Total Rewards

In addition to a great compensation package, paid time off, and paid parental leave, many Avalara employees are eligible for bonuses.

Health & Wellness
Benefits vary by location but generally include private medical, life, and disability insurance.

Inclusive culture and diversity
Avalara strongly supports diversity, equity, and inclusion, and is committed to integrating them into our business practices and our organizational culture. We also have a total of 8 employee-run resource groups, each with senior leadership and exec sponsorship.

What You Need To Know About Avalara

We're defining the relationship between tax and tech.

We've already built an industry-leading cloud compliance platform, processing over 54 billion customer API calls and over 6.6 million tax returns a year. Our growth is real - we're a billion dollar business - and we're not slowing down until we've achieved our mission - to be part of every transaction in the world.

We're bright, innovative, and disruptive, like the orange we love to wear. It captures our quirky spirit and optimistic mindset. It shows off the culture we've designed, that empowers our people to win. We've been different from day one. Join us, and your career will be too.

We're An Equal Opportunity Employer

Supporting diversity and inclusion is a cornerstone of our company — we don't want people to fit into our culture, but to enrich it. All qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, age, gender, national orientation, disability, sexual orientation, US Veteran status, or any other factor protected by law. If you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know.